Huayna Capac ( ; ; ; before 14931527) was the eleventh Sapa Inca of Tawantinsuyu, the Inca Empire. He was the son of and successor to Túpac Inca Yupanqui, the sixth Sapa Inca of the Hanan dynasty, and eleventh of the Inca civilization. He was born in Tumipampa and tutored to become Sapa Inca from a young age.
Tawantinsuyu reached its greatest extent under Huayna Capac, as he expanded the empire's borders south along the Chilean coast, and north through what is now Ecuador and southern Colombia. According to the priest Juan de Velasco he absorbed the Quito Confederation into his empire by marrying Queen Paccha Duchicela, halting a long protracted war. Huayna Capac founded the city Atuntaqui and developed the city Cochabamba as an agriculture and administrative center. The Sapa Inca greatly expanded the Inca road system and had many qullqa (storehouses) built.
Huayna Capac died in 1527, possibly from a European disease introduced to the Americas by the Spaniards. The death of him and his eldest son Ninan Cuyochi sparked the Inca Civil War, in which his sons Huáscar and Atahualpa fought over succession as the next Sapa Inca. Tawantinsuyu fell to Spanish conquests shortly after Atahualpa's victory.
Names
Huayna Capac's original name was Tito Cusi Huallpa (Hispanicized spelling) T'itu Kuši Wallpa (reconstructed Classical Quechua) before ascending to Sapa Inca. Huayna Capac has many alternative transliterations, among the most popular ⟨Huaina Capac⟩, ⟨Guaina Capac⟩, ⟨Wayna Qhapaq⟩, and many others. The name comes from Quechua "young" and "mighty, powerful", thusly "the young mighty one", and not the other way around *"the mighty young one".
Subjects commonly approached Sapa Incas adding epithets and titles when addressing them, such as Wayna Qhapaq Inka Sapʼalla Tukuy Llaqta Uya "unique sovereign Huayna Capac, listener to all peoples".
Background and family
The exact place and date of Huayna Capac's birth are unknown. Though he was raised in Cuzco, he may have been born in 1468 in Tumebamba (modern Cuenca) and have spent part of his childhood there. He was the son of Túpac Inca Yupanqui (ruled 1471–1493) who had extended Inca rule north into present-day Ecuador, a process continued by Huayna Capac. Coya Cusirimay. with other women. Huayna Capac took another sister, Araua Ocllo, as his royal wife. They had a son they named Thupaq Kusi Wallpa, and others.<sup>:143</sup>
As Sapa Inca, he built astronomical observatories in Ecuador such as Ingapirca. Huayna Capac hoped to establish a northern stronghold in the city of Tumebamba, inhabited by the Cañari people. In the Sacred Valley, the sparse remains of one of Huayna Capac's estates and his country palace called Kispiwanka can still be found in the present-day town of Urubamba, Peru.
In what is now Bolivia, Huayna Capac was responsible for developing Cochabamba as an important agriculture and administrative center, with more than two thousand silos (qullqas) for corn storage built in the area. Further north in Ecuador, Huayna Capac's forces attempted to expand into the lowlands of the Amazon basin, reaching the Chinchipe River, but they were pushed back by the Shuar.
Huayna Capac acquired a special fondness for the central Peruvian Andes and its local highlights; he is recorded as having spent time relaxing in the Chinchaycocha lake on the Bombon plateau. Many Inca rafts were brought to the lake directly from Ecuador for his amusement. On its way to Cusco, after Huayna Capac's death in Quito, the procession carrying his body stopped in the vicinity of Shawsha, a city in the central Peruvian Andes, acknowledging the fondness that he had felt for the region, and because the local inhabitants had been some of the most loyal to its causes.
Tawantinsuyu, or the Inca Empire, reached the height of its size and power under his rule, stretching over much of what is now Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and southwestern Colombia. It included varying terrain from high frozen Andes to the densest swamps. His subjects spanned more than two hundred distinct ethnic groups, each with their own customs and languages. The empire spanned north to south, comprising the desert coast of Pacific Ocean on the west, the high Andes in the southeast and the forests of the Amazon Basin on the east. A dedicated ruler, Huayna Capac did much to improve the lives of his people. In addition to building temples and other works, Huayna Capac greatly expanded the road network. He had qollqa built along it for food so that aid could be quickly rushed to any who were in danger of starvation.
Huayna Capac knew of the Spanish arrival off the coast of his empire When Huayna Capac returned to Quito he had already contracted a fever while campaigning in present-day Colombia (though some historians dispute this), which might've resulted from the introduction of European disease like measles or smallpox. The Spaniards had carried a wide variety of deadly diseases to North, Central and South America; and the Indigenous peoples had no acquired immunity against them. Millions of Central- and South Americans died in such epidemics and possibly including Huayna's brother, Auqui Tupac Inca, and Huayna's would-be successor and eldest son, Ninan Cuyochi.
According to some sources, his sons Atahualpa and Huáscar were granted two separate realms of Tawantinsuyu: to his favorite Atahualpa the northern portion centered on Quito; and Huáscar the southern portion centered on Cusco.
An attempt to find the mummies of the Inca emperors beneath the San Andrés Hospital in 2001 was unsuccessful. The archaeologists found a crypt, but it was empty. The mummies may have been removed when the building was repaired after an earthquake.